Finally, bye bye Ranger...Hello Beetle!
It’s done. It wasn’t easy but it’s all finished. Thanks to Toykid’s engine, the SRB I always wanted now looks the way I always wanted it to. My distaste for the F150 shell on the SRB chassis that I had for nearly 20 years has had its bad taste washed away and is now off to a new, loving home, leaving only a blue, egg shaped lump on some sand paddles.
Of course, this egg did not make labor easy for the chicken. I guess that makes me the chicken. Oh well, I guess you are what you are.
Let me start at the beginning…since I obviously have time whilst sitting in a meeting right now. I got an original Ranger in about 1996. I had it running a couple of times but it wasn’t my cup of Bovril (yes, I’m American and I still know what Bovril is). When the rere Scorcher came out, I thought about converting it, going as far as a cost benefit analysis on converting the Ranger to a Scorcher. Then I saw Toykid’s engine and that was it; I decided to sell the Ranger and get a Scorcher. As luck would have it, I found one on eBay right by my sister’s house in Southern California. I talked to the guy on eBay about settling outside and ended up paying $250 for a new built, never used Scorcher. The wheels were in motion.
Once I got my hands on my new baja beetle, I ordered Toykid’s engine assembly and got painting. I added electronics to the car. There is a Futaba 3003 servo, Airtronics Z receiver and a Tamiya 105bk speedo with the stock silver can. The car ran remarkably well, aside from the “Corvair” like tucking rear swing arms which is part of how the car drives. I thought about the zero camber upgraded rear end but I haven’t decided yet. I kind of like how the rear camber changes as the car bounces along. Anywho, the engine painting was fun and I gave it a nice, lightly weathered look.
Problem was, I still had the shell to paint. I was (am) busy working on the house but my wife ended up having to go on a business trip to Washington D.C. This left me with a ton of work to do on the house BUT I was also left to my own devices on what to do at lunch and afternoon. The weather was amazing and I decided to paint my Fiat 500 and Original Hornet lexan shells along with clear coating my Rockbuster and finally, starting my beetle.
You know what they say about best laid plans? They don’t mean squat.
Nothing went right on the paint process for the shell. Nothing. The lid was wet sanded before it was even primed. All ridges removed and then a coat of flat white testors spray was applied. That was then color sanded and the white for the separation stipe was next. That went on easily and after a couple days baking in the sun, it was masked and the light blue coat was next! Out came the nose cone and the light blue went on, horribly. It was spraying chunks of old paint that was stuck in the nozzle from when I last used it years before. Fantastic. So then I had to let it dry and strip it and re-primer it. The light blue was out of the question and since I had a mass of blues I didn’t want to buy any more. I decided to change the color scheme. Gloss bright blue testors (1210) at the rear and gloss dark blue at the front. I sprayed the rear and it looked fantastic. Test shot the dark blue and found it to be negligibly darker than the bright blue. That wouldn’t do. Now im running out of blues. I found this Arctic blue testors (2902) I had and liked how dark it was, plus I was annoyed and stopped caring.
The front paint came out great but as the front was metallic and the rear and white stripe were not, out came the pearl coat. A few coats later I remembered how much I don’t like pearl over white. It makes it “pearl white”. Genius. Everything was color sanded and buffed between layers and the details were hand painted along with the cut lines pre-pearl coat. I also brush painted the inside of the body to get a low gloss black look. I couldn't even dare to mask the shell and spray it. I knew that wouldn't end well.
I am going to be adding an LED light harness that I designed so that meant I needed to make all of the light units actually capable of accepting bulbs. This required a whole lot of drilling and cutting. Those of you who have added the clear tail lamp lenses know what a disaster this can be. The dremelling process was tedious and dangerous but fortunately, no plastic nor limbs were lost. The light kit I made does have turn signals and reverse lights but jamming 3 LED’s in those tail light buckets was something I thought improbable but weirdly, I managed to get them in there rather easy.
I am just happy that I have the body complete now. I have always wanted a Scorcher and now, I do. Please comment and let me know what you think!
Cheers!
If you liked those pictures, you should see these...
Who the h*&@ is Leo?
Comments
RACECRAFTERS
Love the simplicity of this scheme and choice of colors - very 70s 'ish. And you're right about the F150 body on the SRB chassis - just plain daft! Nice work Pintopower! You are what You 'think' you are.
Crash Cramer
Holy crap Batman, that is something. It is very RADICAL MAN. I think you win the award for the OCD focus on this one. need some more night shots with those lights working and if you had parked this on some sand, I would have thought it was real.
Pintopower
Thanks guys.
Crash, I will need to finish up the lighting and get some night shots.
Thanks and technically, I was being sarcastic about the Genius bit but hey, I'll take what I can get.
SRB Bloke
Not really a fan of metallic paints. But Loving your patience on the paint process.
Engine looks superb I really enjoyed painting mine. Great pics, it does look pretty real
And very impressed you wrote such a long description whilst in a meeting
mr alan
Great stuff! Love the paint!
MAD-BEE
Very good job pal its a beaut! Love the engine details and box art front bumper!
lights are cool and smart paint job too
Just one thing i think you need to pop your padlatrak tyre around the other way
Great looking Scorcher mate.
VINTAGE HILUX FAN
Absolutely awesome scorcher!!!!!! Love the 70's retro look to it. Much better than the standard box-art liveries. Nice one
Pintopower
Vintage Hilux Fan - Thanks so much. I am a big stripe fan.
Thanks! I never noticed that the guy who built this put the tires on wrong! HAHA!
NWarty
Absolutely fantastic looking Bug there Pinto!
Basket Case
Fantastic looking bug. I know the feeling of getting the Scorcher you always wanted. Excellent paint job, huge improvement on the box art. Well done!!
Issi-72
Wow!!! What a fabulous color scheme. Very nice looking Bug.
Toykid
Looks like I missed commenting on this earlier, just awesome how real this looks. Very well done Alberto.
Pintopower
Toykid - Thanks a lot. Most of the realism comes from you! Haha
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